Mazzocco Retires as AHEC Nursing Liaison

For more than nine years, Gail Mazzocco, RN, EdD, has served the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing (SON) and the NC AHEC Program as the AHEC Nursing Liaison. Her record as a professor and as liaison speaks for itself.

As director of the Statewide RN Refresher Program (a partnership of AHEC, SON, and The William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education), Mazzocco’s accomplishments include:

Working with the AHEC nurses to enroll over 1,000 RNs, provide options for precepted clinical experiences at over 80 health care agencies, and provide new clinical skills labs and simulation experiences.

Working with the NC Board of Nursing, Mazzocco (photo right) has worked tirelessly to assist with clinical placement of RNs who have encumbered licenses and wish to return to practice.

Working with UNC SON faculty, Mazzocco led a major update and revision of the didactic modules and the creation of an online option.

“In the area of continuing education, Gail has worked in partnership with AHEC Nurses, SON faculty, and her assistant Annie Taft, to match up the learning needs of working nurses with faculty expertise and research interests and made possible well over 200 hours of continuing education programs for nine AHECs every year,” said NC AHEC Associate Director Karen Stallings, RN, MEd, FAAN.

To increase the number of BSN prepared nurses for NC, Mazzocco has been a supporter and active collaborator in the growing number of Regionally Increasing Baccalaureate Nurses (RIBN) projects, which link university BSN programs with North Carolina community colleges.

“In the area of clinical site development, she has been eager to go out to AHEC regions at the invitation of AHEC nurses, to meet with nursing programs and encourage new ideas to increase clinical capacity,” continued Stallings. “Their innovative ideas, many of which result in grant funding from AHEC, have resulted in hundreds of new clinical experiences for LPN, ADN, BSN, and MSN students in health care shortage areas.”

Shuler Chosen as New AHEC Nursing Liaison

Mary Schuler, RN, EdD, CNE, assumes the position of Statewide AHEC Nursing Liaison at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing. Schuler (photo right) comes to the SON from Norwalk Community College in Connecticut, where she was director of nursing and allied health. With leadership management and curriculum development in her background, Schuler’s new focus is the future of nursing within the health care system of North Carolina.

NC AHEC enables partnerships between academic institutions, health care agencies, and others in order to ensure that the health care and health care workforce needs are met for the state of North Carolina. The Statewide AHEC Nursing Liaison works to meet the nursing mission of AHEC within North Carolina, and to ensure the availability of high quality continuing education for nurses.

Schuler says she is drawn to AHEC because she believes in the AHEC mission and vision, in serving underserved populations, and in working to make the diversity of health care workers reflect the population of the communities they serve. “These are things I hold dear,” Schuler says. “I consider this position an opportunity to look in a visionary manner at nursing in the state.”

She also assumes a faculty role as a SON assistant clinical professor.